F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Sold by Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC cut its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 10,475 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 94 shares during the quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $2,634,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of F5 by 59.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 4,258 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $733,000 after buying an additional 1,589 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in F5 by 232.6% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 41,805 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,200,000 after acquiring an additional 29,236 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 6.3% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.8% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 17,567 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,026,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in shares of F5 by 65.6% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,219 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 879 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV opened at $272.99 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $274.64. The business has a 50-day moving average of $255.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $224.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. F5’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $251.25.

About F5

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company’s distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.